It was on this hike I met MountainHikerette. She had just moved to Colorado and already knew she wanted to climb all the fourteeners. She was on her way up Grays via Stevens Gulch. A friend & I were doing Kelso. We exchanged information. I had already climbed all the fourteeners. I got to do all of them again! We returned to Kelso on 8-26-01. On 6-30-07 we climbed Kelso again as part of the Dexter search party. http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=7091

I checked local avalanche forecasts to be sure the danger was low before climbing Kelso. Halfway up, I heard a loud "thunk" as the top snow layer collapsed under my weight. Luckily, there was no sliding. The "thunk" was loud enough to scare the @#$% out of me, though. I continued on to the summit, then slid on my butt down the whole slope. Kelso has an awesome no-worry run-out.

Summiting Kelso just happened! I was only trying to get up high above the Stevens Gulch trail to get a better view of the trail to Grays, not knowing that a named summit was above. Boy was I surprised! Sign-in register and everything.

Climbed Kelso Ridge to Torrey's summit. Trail ran back down into the valley to Kelso NW Ridge solo. I made this route as hard as I could. It is possible to make it 4th class. Lots of loose rock. From summit, descended s. slopes. Ran back to car all in about 5 hours.

So, not having a car, and wanting to climb...I rode my bike from Boulder, climbed some unnamed couloir on Kelso's west face (I believe it is the one with the visible stream on the topo), summited Kelso, followed Kelso Ridge to Torreys, traversed to Grays, and glissaded down. Great trip! Although, riding with gear is pretty arduous!

Flew in from Chicago Friday night and slept at the TH. Parked just past the old saw mill on Saturday morning, snowshoed in and camped below the mine shack. Climbed Kelso Mountain in the afternoon as a warm-up for Torreys Peak. Woke up early and climbed the Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys the following day. The South Ridge is a fun easy hike with great views of Kelso Ridge on Torreys.

I snowshoed to the Steven Gulch Trailhead from I-70. Once below the south slopes I was able to stash my snowshoes and trudge up to the summit. Although this peak is easy I underestimated it a little bit! The summit provides a unique perspective to Edwards, Grays, Torreys, Parnassus & Bard Peak. As to be expected, it was just me and the mountain on this beutiful January day (not common for weather as warm as I had).

We, Haliku, and I got an early start during a light snowfall. As we ascended, the winds increased and we encountered whiteout conditions on our way to the summit. Despite the lack of views on the summit, it was a fun outing and good conditioning.